Since Easter, my refrigerator has been in a state of chaos, marked by leftover sweet and savory ingredients. To add to the madness, nothing seems to be of sufficient quantity to do anything with, and yet there is a little too much to throw away. Argh!
A good case in point: the small bunch of thyme which was leftover from the rack of lamb I prepared for Easter Dinner.
I normally think of thyme as a savory ingredient. But recently, I have read multiple recipes which pair it with summer fruits. I am not sure how I missed this band wagon, but given that I also had leftover berries in the refrigerator, I decided to give the combination a whirl.
I found this recipe on the Vanilla Garlic food blog. Although the blogger (Garrett McCord) calls this a "Berry Cake with Thyme", this recipe is actually a berry cobbler which incorporates a small amount of thyme in the batter.
This recipe is very straight forward to make. Milk, vanilla extract and melted butter are basically whisked into the dry ingredients -- including sugar, flour, salt, baking powder and thyme. The fruit and some table sugar are then sprinkled on top and the cobbler gets baked in the oven.
The recipe was a bit ambiguous about what size baking dish to use. ("Use something bigger than a 9x9 baking dish.") I used an oval baking dish which is 12 inches long and 8 inches wide. It seemed to be just right. I added more fruit than recommended (i.e. one cup each of blueberries and strawberries); in hindsight, this threw the ratio of fruit to crust off, and I will stick to the program when I make it again.
This dessert is best if eaten on the day it is made as it tends to get soggy as it sits. I served it warm with vanilla ice cream. Not bad at all.
Here is the printable recipe. Enjoy.